Maryel Smith

Music educator and civil rights advocate Mary Eleanor Vogel Smith has died. She was 78 years old. Mrs. Smith resided in Elyria, Ohio. She passed away at Cleveland Clinic on January 3, 2013. Maryel Smith was born August 10, 1934 near Cincinnati, Ohio to the Rev E. Phillip Vogel and Eleanor Wilhelmina Kuhlman Vogel. She attended Lotspeich middle school, and then the Hillsdale School for Girls 1952. Mrs. Smith graduated from Marysville College in Tennessee, Cum Laude in Music and Education in 1957. She received a Masters in Music Education from Case Western Reserve University in 1972. Mrs. Smith taught elementary school music in the Cleveland, Ohio city schools for 30 years. In 1990 she was one of 17 people in Ohio statewide to be designated as a Nationally Registered Music Educator. She gave private instruction in piano and organ and was a member of the American Guild of Organists. Mrs. Smith was an active member of the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, Ohio, and served as deacon and elder and on numerous committees and task forces. She was active in peace and justice issues in the areas of women's rights, environmentalism, gun control, and pacifist causes. Mrs. Smith served on the board of directors of the Cleveland Abortion Rights Action League and Educators for Social Responsibility. In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Smith requested that donations be made in her memory to one of three organizations: The Church of the Covenant http://www.covenantweb.org ; The InterReligious Task Force on Central America http://irtfcleveland.org/; or, PAND - Performers and Artists for Nuclear Disarmament via Cleveland Peace Action. http://www.peaceactioncleveland.org/join-donate . Mrs. Smith is survived by her husband, Robert C. Smith, a daughter, Martha Eleanor Hardy and her partner Sarah Weaver, a son, Henry Edward Hardy and Mr. Smith's son, Scott Smith. Mrs. Smith's son John Phillip Hardy predeceased her. Memorial Services will be held at The Church of the Covenant on Monday, February 11 at 2 PM.


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